Destiny, Explained*

(*please refer here for description of destiny)

I don't remember exactly how or when it happened. Likely it was one of those "sure why not" or "I'll do it if you do it" moments that seem to plague crazy runners like us. Nonetheless, several months ago Abby and I decided to do an ultra marathon. I guess after a marathon, it's the next logical step. (Or illogical, as many would argue.)

Once we finished our last marathon, we wasted no time in planning the next step. Meeting for ice cream just over 24 hours after finishing, we began to search for the right ultra marathon: our destiny. I thought the search would be relatively easy, but it turned out to be a great deal more complicated and in depth than I'd imagined. As we looked into different races, we realized that, unlike marathons, ultramarathons come in all shapes and sizes (literally).

So it was necessary to come up with some criteria in order to narrow down our choices and finally arrive at our destiny. The week long back-and-forth between us revolved around several different categories. I have abridged and summarized this for ease of reading and understanding.

1. Distance- The major question was 50K or 50 miles. Although an ultra marathon is "technically"anything longer than a marathon, the vast majority of ultras are either 50K or 50 miles in distance. (There are, of course, longer 100 mile and longer ones, but let's not get in over our heads for the first one.) For metric system phobics, 50K is equal to about 31 miles (31.06 to be exact), about 5 miles longer than a marathon. We said "forget about the 50k races. Just doesn't sound like a huge challenge (though it could be, since it'll be on trails, so maybe I shouldn't say that so absolutely)." We agreed that based on the decision of desired date (see category #2), we would have the proper time to train for a 50 miler. We also wanted the challenge of a race nearly twice as long as anything we'd done before. I was, of course, sure to add this statement: "We can reevaluate this decision during training when it seems we're running more than sleeping and thinking 50K sounds like a really nice idea.)

2. Date- The next major decision was to figure out when this would all pan out. Initially, we thought the fall would be perfect. Take the summer "off" and then train again together come September for an ultra in December/January. Then we realized how quickly December comes after September. It's like 3 months, who knew? With the seemingly great amount of training recommended for an ultra, it seemed wise to push back our destiny date. In addition, as you will find in the rest of our decision process, December/January is not prime ultra marathon season, if such thing exists. So we expanded our search to spring time (and just for kicks added a fall marathon for another shot at a BQ).

3. Location- Unfortunately, we were unable to find an ultra marathon in our back yard so we knew from the beginning that travel some distance for any event. I decided that if we're going to travel any great distance, I think the ultra should be official. I don't want to train all this time, travel to wherever (Canada, Arizona, Kansas) and the "race" end up being some schmata Sunday morning run that the local running club organizes. People will look at us as if we're crazy for traveling so far for their silly run. In December/January being that it is winter, there are, quite obviously, very few events in the northeast. As we expanded our search, there became more options closer to home.

3. Course- When discussing the course, several different subcategories that come into play:
a) Loop vs point-to-point vs out-and-back- I'm not liking the loop idea. Two 25 mile loops, that's fine. Three loops of a 15-20 mile loop, I could handle that. Fourteen 4 mile loops, not so much. Fifty times around a 1 mile track- kill me now! I'd prefer a point-to-point, maybe an out-and-back or a longer loop course.
b) Terrain- If I'm going to run 50 miles or more anywhere, it had better be pretty. No roads. No farms. No "like someone else's lawn" crap. No flatness. I want trails. Real trails.
c) Elevation- I definitely want some elevation change, but I don't know that I want to run up a mountain. I ran up the hill behind the Art Museum today and I was a little out of breath. Obviously, we will train for the elevation and will welcome a walk break up a hill, but it's just something to think about since we don't have "real" mountains in Pennsylvania. We might be getting ourselves in over our heads thinking that we could make it up a real mountain, alive.

5. Weather- Ah the weather. So obviously weather is a great unknown and you can't ever predict what it will be like, but we can definitely make some grand assumptions. New England in the winter will be cold. Very very cold. Not fun 50 mile run weather. Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina in the winter- very hit or miss. Probably going to be ok, but they do get freak blizzards or ice storms. Florida is always hot. Even when people in Florida think it's frigid, it's still hot running weather. The weather was definitely something to think about, but not get caught up on.

6. Website- Being that it's the 21st century, we did all of our research online so we were easily able to compare the websites of different events. An event website that hadn't been updated in a few years was taken with a grain of salt. An obvious "homemade" website left question about whether the event was official or not. A colorful, informational, organized website made us happy. So we decided, as trivial as it seems, that the event had to have a nice website. It's really a security feature to ensure that we were choosing a legitimate event.

7. Name- Going along with the trivial website category, we also considered the name of the race. The Hellgate Ultramarathon kind of scared the crap out of me- why do something that is admittedly hell? The Mountain Masochist goes along in the same vein. (I should note that Abby said "I kind of like that it has 'hell' in the title :)" Most events don't have such intimidating names, but those that did were more heavily scrutinized, at least by me.

So what came of all of this? A decision.

Our destiny is the Bel Monte Endurance Run.

Distance- 50 miler, check. Date- in late March (March 27th, ahem potential spectators), check. Location- Charlottesville, Virginia, check. Course- one (very long) loop, primarily trails, definite elevation changes, check. Weather- hopefully not frigid, hopefully not scorching hot, still a wildcard, check. Website- very nice and official, check. Name- good unintimidating name, check.

Now onto figuring out how to train for this. I know one thing: there will be lots and lots of running. And plenty of good stories, I'm sure. Stay tuned.